Buster scruggs book12/4/2023 ![]() ![]() The page turns, to a new title page: MEAL TICKET And then to a new illustration: Close on a man orating. The screenplay text also describes the book prop that is used to introduce each scene – forming a sort of meta-text: “…we are dissolving to the last lines of this story on the page. Introduction to the colour plates section One can see why they included six illustrations from the book prop in the screenplay edition. The Coens had to evoke and suggest a great deal with very few words and short sentences. It’s jaunty but at the same time gruesome. It also means he doesn’t fall all the way off the horse, but drags head-first on the ground, with his feet tangled in the stirrups, and that this has him bouncing along like a passenger in a sleigh. Sebastian by the Italian Early Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna. Sebastian means that the judge has arrows through every part of him – from his calves to his neck – and that his eyes are rolling up in his head, just like in the paintings of St. Unmounted now, the horse takes off, grazing the strung-up cowboy’s horse as it gallops past to take the stirrup-tangled body of the judge on a prairie sleigh ride. In the screenplay the descriptive passages are often as entertaining and metaphoric as the dialogue, and requires the cinematographer to read more into the scene than just the action: “The black-clad judge is St-Sebastianed full of arrows and tumbles off his horse, his fall snapping arrowshafts. ![]() The book not only had to look the part, but also had to move well as it was manipulated. The Coens then worked with Chris at FX WRX to shoot each carefully choreographed vignette. The camera was guided by veteran Techno Dolly operator Anthony Jacques.” (Christoper Webb, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: Main Title & Chapter Cinematography, Vimeo) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Screenplay by Joel & Ethan Coen (Paperback publisher: Faber & Faber Decem128 pp.) Textual and visual descriptions Master bookmaker and prop artist Dave King hand-crafted the period storybook to the Coens’ exacting specifications. This was fitted with a RED 6K camera and a classic 40mm Arri Macro lens. The team chose to work with the Techno Dolly motion control camera crane because of its intuitive workflow and graceful motion. This included evaluating traditional and motion control camera movement systems, as well as lighting and lens options. Chris and the team at his studio, FX WRX, did practical tests with a variety of setups to offer the Coens production methods that fit their specific creative style. Their long time collaborator for main titles, Randy Balsmeyer of Big Film Design, invited cinematographer and technical director Christopher Webb to help find the best approach. “For “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”, Joel & Ethan Coen chose to create the opening and narrative transitions with cinematic vignettes, featuring a real storybook. ![]()
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